Lawyer who dishonestly practiced for 10 years convicted

A former president of a Pennsylvania county bar association has been convicted of using forged documents to pose as an estate lawyer for a decade even though she didn't have a law license.

Kimberly Kitchen was convicted on Thursday on charges of forgery, unauthorized practice of law and felony records tampering in Huntingdon County.

Kitchen, 45, fooled BMZ Law, a Huntingdon firm, by forging a law license, bar exam results, an email showing she attended Duquesne University law school and a check for a state attorney registration fee, prosecutors said.

The married James Creek resident handled estate planning for more than 30 clients despite never attending law school, and she even served as president of the Huntingdon County Bar Association for a time.

She made partner at BMZ, where she specialized in estate planning, before the fraud was discovered.

The judge on the case was brought in from another county, and the state attorney general, not county prosecutors, handled the case because Kitchen had been a fixture in the county courthouse for years.

BMZ officials testified at her two-day trial but haven't commented publicly since issuing a statement in December 2014, when the Huntingdon Daily News first reported that Kitchen was being investigated.

The firm's voicemail said its offices were closed for Good Friday.

'Sadly, it would appear that our firm was the last, in a long line of professionals, to have been deceived by Ms Kitchen into believing she was licensed to practice law,' the firm said previously. 'We are undertaking a thorough review of each and every file she may have handled.'

Kitchen had worked in fundraising at Juniata College before she started telling people she was an attorney, state prosecutors said.

The charges she was convicted of carry a maximum sentence of three-and-a-half to seven years behind bars.

Defense attorney Caroline Roberto said Friday that she is reviewing whether to appeal.